Sunday, July 27, 2008

Le Affair Edwards

This story about an Edwards affair could get ugly pretty fast.

If you haven't heard, the National Enquirer broke a story about Edwards having an illegitimate love child with a ex-staffer while his wife battles for her life against cancer. I, like most Americans, have a rather dim view of tabloids in general, and my initial reaction to this was a groan and an eye roll. But the story didn't burn itself out in 24 hours, people with more time than me figured out that the Enquirer has a better track record than you might think when it comes to this kind of stuff, and then Edwards was caught hiding from reporters in the bathroom of the hotel the woman was staying at. At 2:45 AM. And the Enquirer now says it has pictures.

I really really don't want to believe that this is true. Edwards is our Golden Boy right now: the young and attractive former Senator whose cause is to help people less fortunate than most, and is the only major primary candidate who didn't have large numbers of people opposed to his candidacy. Everybody likes Edwards. If it really turns out to be true that he cheated on his cancer-stricken wife with a young blonde staffer and had an illegitimate child by her ... well, his star would fade pretty fast, and rightly so. I don't care if it doesn't have any bearing on how he'd reform health care, on some level I expect him to be a decent human being, and this kind of crap isn't what a decent human being does.